Pete Doherty party-death complaint goes to cops' watchdog

The mother of a man who plunged to his death after a bust-up with rocker PETE DOHERTY at a party has taken her fight for justice to the U.K.'s police watchdog.

Published 12th November 2012

Sheila Blanco has been campaigning for answers since her son Mark mysteriously toppled from a balcony at an apartment block in east London in December, 2006 after he was ejected from a party following an altercation with The Libertines frontman.

An initial police investigation concluded the death was not suspicious, but Mrs. Blanco forced a re-opening of the case in 2010.

She lodged an official complaint about the police probe into the tragedy after Doherty was cleared of any wrongdoing last year (11) when authorities ruled there was insufficient evidence to bring charges over the incident.

Officials at London's Metropolitan Police conducted a probe into their original inquiry but despite ruling last month (Oct12) that there were several "issues" with the investigation, no disciplinary measures have been taken against any officer.

Mrs. Blanco has now appealed to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), where officials are examining how her grievance has been handled.

An IPCC spokeswoman tells WENN, "There was a complaint made to the Met Police. They sometimes come to us or they investigate themselves. I think in this case they investigated themselves and Mrs. Blanco is not happy with the outcome so she has appealed to us. So that is the situation being dealt with. We have just received it last month. We are looking at the appeal. We look to see whether the investigation (into Mrs. Blanco's complaint) does what it said it would do."

A Met Police spokeswoman says, "We received a complaint in response to various aspects of the original investigation. An investigation by the director of professional standards was launched. The investigation is now complete. An appeal has been lodged by the complainant with the IPCC."

Bosses at BBC current affairs TV show Newsnight are planning to broadcast their own investigation into the case to mark the six-year anniversary of the tragedy next month (Dec12).